Who’s In?

It took all of about 5 seconds. But it has been almost a week now. And as I sit in silence as the sun begins to rise, I think, “this is the moment I want to share.” Because it was beautiful. Because it was powerful. And because it mattered. A lot!

The school day had started and I was simply walking down the hallway. When a young student turned and happened to notice I was behind him. He was at a distance where most children would simply say Hi Mr. Harper and return to class. I would have been have been fine with that. But this young man did something quite different.

This beautiful child turned, walked towards me and opened his arms wide to give me a hug. He didn’t have to. I didn’t ask him to. He wanted to! And it meant the world to me. Not so much because he gave me a hug. But because he knew I wanted one. And because he wanted one too.

Moments like this can’t be planned and they can’t be measured. But we can work for them. And we must work for them. I work with an amazing group of people everyday that do just that. They work for the moments.

But it is hard work. And what appears to be effortless is oftentimes quite exhausting. What I mean is that there are those that we watch and we think that because they appear to, have it all together, everything comes easy to them.

Their class is awesome!

They always seem happy.

Their students adore them.

But it’s not that simple! These folks have to work damn hard. And it is very easy to forget this. We spend much of our time helping and nurturing those that we see in need or those we see that are struggling. And we forget about those that don’t appear to be struggling.

This week let’s take more time to check on these folks.

They are struggling too.

But they continue to smile.

And they are always positive.

And we continue to lean on them when we need help.

But they are human.

And they get tired. And they get angry. And they get down.

But you’d never know it. This week let’s thank them for what appears to effortless. This week let’s thank them for always being there. This week let’s thank them for creating so many powerful moments.